Little Hearts (Malayalam Movie) Review
Shane Nigam is trying his luck at playing an ordinary protagonist from a remote village. This light hearted drama is produced by Sandra Thomas who is coming right after bringing a first of a kind slasher film in Mollywood. The film also stars Baburaj, Ramya Suvi, Mahima Nambiar and Shine Tom Chacko in prominent roles. Set in a remote village, the film deals with 3 love stories, unique in its own way and how these relationships end up.
The makers attempted at a feel good – family friendly movie in a rural backdrop with a touch of progressive viewpoint. 5 minutes into the movie, the intention is clear. The film opens up with the love life Baburaj & Ramya Suvi. These middle-aged love birds share a delightful romantic bond. Halfway through the film, we get to witness a couple more of romantic tales. The makers should have focussed on these relationships. But instead, these relationships are just a part of a numerous events formed from a wayward screenplay and they pass without leaving a mark. They have tried to generate surplus comic episodes and sadly most of these sequences could not be funny.
Coming to the acting department, Shane Nigam easily gets into the skin of an ordinary person from the outskirts. His performances were lovely but he deserved a better character and a plot. He displays a certainly likeable comic timing and aces the controlled acting without going overboard. Baburaj seemed to be comfortable in his role and his naive characterisation deliver some funny episodes. Shine Tom Chacko & Mahima Nambiar deserved some better writing and has very less scope to perform. But Ramya Suvi was enjoyable in a prominent role as she had a better character arc in a rather gloomy screenplay.
When talking about relationships in the story, the writers had a conviction in portraying the romance, albeit the 3rd one. They bring forward a progressive touch. While that is true, those convictions were not conceived in the best interest of the story. It is because they just made a complete mess of one of the love stories where the idea goes intentionally sillier than thought provoking. Unfortunately, it was celebrated as a laughable joke in many instances. Was the whole intention of being progressive was just a farce.? But what was good in this story is an emotional sequence which felt very real and true. The church sequence and following airport sequence was pretty emotional. Sadly, this particular story has nothing to offer later on in the film.
Another setback besides the comic episodes is the script itself which branches out to numerous incidents which has nothing to do with the central plot. In the latter half, it becomes clear that the makers are forcibly creating funny situations that become tedious to sit through. They sway away from the central plot, like they even failed to recall a few important plot points and characters. Despite having a straightforward story in hand, the writers indulged in creating undemanding instances for generating laughter, thus losing the focus on the plot. The director also seems to have lost the whole plot here and most of the scenes in the latter half felt so pretentious without any proper backing.
The music is good but every 15 minutes, there is a song ready to be played which is not serving the purpose. The editing part might have even missed out to bring some connection between certain scenes. The audience might even miss out on a few details and is sure to ask “Come again?”. Finally, this film had all the potential to be a heart-warming love story but instead this is just a lazily executed film which does not guarantee a satisfying watch.
Compiled By Jayaram